giving thanks

Ava what are you thankful for?
A:  Well...my movies, my toys, my roxy (her dog she has had since she was born) and...
(she smiles and pauses)
Me: Is that it?
A:  mom, I'm just kidding.  I'm thankful for Adam and Daddy and Mommy and Nunny and Nonno Tony and Nonna and Nonno and all my friends.
Me:  Ava that's really sweet.
A:  Yeah, I was tricking on you.
Me:  Oh yeah! Well you're pretty funny.  It's okay to be thankful for that other stuff too. 
A:  I know, but I have to be thankful for you guys because that's how I get all my other things.
Me:  ...awesome. 

So we had a great Thanksgiving.  It was much more laid back and relaxing than years past.  We went to his mom's house and ate lunch, then came back to our house to get ready for dinner.  We usually head over to my Nonna's house, but her and my Nonno were both sick.  So my dad came over in the morning to get the turkey going at our house.  We came home, my mom came over, the kids took a nap, and when they got up dinner was ready.  We ate,cleaned up, watched football, and then ate pie.  Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but my pie's were sooo yummy...pat, pat, pat.  I would say the best I have ever made.  Lemon meringue, pecan, pumpkin, and apple.  Oh yes, on Thanksgiving I am a pie makin' fool.  It was all delicious and we had a great time together.

I am very thankful for my beautiful, wonderful children.  They make me laugh and smile every day.  I'm so thankful that they are healthy and happy and that they have each other as siblings.  I'm so thankful for Rolies, who is so laid back and caring.  He always puts the kids and our family first, and I couldn't ask for a better husband.  I'm so thankful for my family.  They are so supportive and wonderful.  I could not ask for more or anything better!

THANKFUL...GRATEFUL...BLESSED...ALWAYS!!!

I can hardly contain myself

Holiday, celebrate...

So it is a tad bit early, but I can smell it in the air.  It is the sweet smell of the holidays.  I have always loved holidays, but since having children, my love for this has grown and changed in many ways.  I do enjoy Thanksgiving.  Totally love being with all my family and eating turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, pie--well, I'm kinda getting off topic here and becoming increasingly hungry as I sit here picturing this yummy table of food.  But my number one pick for favorite holiday is...CHRISTMAS! 

Christmas, Christmas time is here...can anyone else hear the Chipmunks singing???



I love seeing the very first colorful shine of lights on the day after Thanksgiving, bundling up on chilly nights with the family to walk around the neighborhood searching for the house with the best light set up, making endless trips to the mall and toy stores to make sure that I have the perfect gifts for everyone who was "nice" on my list, taking the kids to see Santa (this year should be interesting),singing Christmas songs with Ava over and over and over again, and like a friend reminded me--getting all the different holiday cards from family and friends.  

This does remind me of another thing...oh my goodness...it's that time again too.  It's time for the annual Vasquez family Christmas card.  Oh no, there is no sarcasm here.  We love having to take dozens, make that hundreds, of pictures to make sure that we have just the right picture for our photo card that we send out yearly. 

It started off in 2006 with my beautiful baby girl.  A couple of pics, and done.  She was adorable and had the card all to herself for 3 years in a row.  It got a little tougher as she got older, maybe because she's so darn cute or possibly because she is hard headed and only wanted to smile when it suited her. Either way '06-'08 were great years for cards.  Now, 2009 changed a bit.  My beautiful baby boy was born and added a whole new light to taking pictures.  We wanted the perfect family picture...ha ha ha.  The children had other plans.  They decided to make this a challenge...one that I was willing to accept and win.  Although it took HOURS to get a decent picture, looking back I think it was worth it.  The card was great and no one had any clue the agony that we went through to get it done.

So, here we are again--Christmas card time.   I was totally searching the web for the cutest holiday photo cards when a friend pointed me in the direction of Shutterfly.  If you have kids and you take pictures, I'm sure that you know of them.  They have the best selection of Christmas/Holiday cards.  I have spend hours already, trying to pick out the perfect card.  It's really hard with their huge selection, but I think I've narrowed it down to the few contenders.

Okay, so it wasn't so easy, and I don't have our Christmas/Holiday card picked out just yet. And for everyone out there who knows me, you also know that I am indecisive and want things to be perfect.  If anyone can check out this site once and pick out a card, then I am jealous. Check out their holiday photo cards here. 

They also have all kinds of other items and gifts for the family.  Although I thought it was a tad bit much at first, the photo calendars are really cute.  A friend had one made for my Nonna and it was so adorable. Check those our here.  If my grandma loved them, I'm sure any other family members who may not live so close would love to see the little ones and the family every day all year long.  They also have the mini desk calendars here, which are smaller, but still super cute.

Oh...FYI to bloggers...Shutterfly has an awesome promotion here.  They are giving out free holiday photo cards.  Yeah!

I'm so excited.  Now, I have an unspoken rule, which tends to bite me in the biscuits every year, but I never start Christmas shopping until December.  I tried it once and it didn't work--it stressed me out to hang on to the presents for so long.  So I still have about a week and a half to choose the perfect Christmas card...then I will be off and running with the other holiday shoppers.

I can't wait...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...(I would go on, but I don't know the rest of the song...so I'll just keep repeating that part and making up the other words in my head)

october fun 2010

Although October has come and gone, here are a few things we did during this fly by month.

We took a trip to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm/Pumpkin Patch.  I have to say that I like Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls better, but we opted to not drive for over an hour, and still had a good time for the most part.  It was quite warm, which let to some minor melt downs, but snacks seem to make everything better. We got some pumpkins there which quickly rot and got tossed over our fence.

We also decorated our Halloween cookies which went a little like this:

Kids:  yeah, yeah, mmmm...icing

me:  no, stop licking the spoon. we can't give away cookies if you lick the spoon.

kids:  (icing cookies nicely and then licking the icing off the cookies)

me: gross

 

 

FYI-If you did receive cookies from us, they were the "safe" ones.  I only let them decorate a few cookies, which turned into the kids devouring 1/2 container of icing...sick.

Then we went to another church pumpkin patch where we picked out many pumpkins.

Then came Daddy's birthday...so excited for cake!

Last, but not least...Halloween.  Ava dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, and Adam was a puppy.  He didn't give us many options.  We had to choose a costume where everything was attached b/c he was not too fond of dressing up in anything.

Ava as Alice, Adam as a Puppy, and Nonna-on her 78th birthday-as a genie,or as Ava referred to her "Princess Jasmine"

Wow...what a busy month!